In this time of Trump: Trans boy banished from Cub Scouts

Joe Maldanado is 8. He recently joined the Secaucus Cub Scouts Pack 87. He was eagerly looking forward to camping trips and science projects.

Then his mother received a phone call from a Scouting official. Joe was banished.

Kristie Maldonado said she was stunned because her son had been a member of Cub Scout Pack 87 in Secaucus for about a month and his transgender status had not been a secret. But some parents complained, an official from the Northern New Jersey Council of Boy Scouts told her — even though her son had been living as a boy for more than a year and was accepted as a boy at school, she said

Not one of the kids said, 'You don’t belong here."

It made me mad. I had a sad face, but I wasn’t crying. I’m way more angry than sad. My identity is a boy. If I was them, I would let every person in the world go in. It’s right to do.

--Joe

Joe's case could be the first time someone has been barred from participating in Scouting because of transgender identity, said members of the LGBT community. And it comes as the Boy Scouts of America appeared to be emerging from a period of turmoil involving sexual-orientation issues, reversing long-standing bans against gay Scouts and gay Scouting leaders over the past few years. Those policy changes were made amid an internal debate that saw at least one local council defy national Scouting decrees by hiring a gay camp counselor and pressure brought from corporations that withheld donations from the organization.

The Scouts declined to say whether they have a written transgender policy. Effie Delimarkos, the communications director for the Boy Scouts of America, said in a statement that the organization’s Cub Scouts programs are for boys age 7 to 10 and that "the classification on the participant’s birth certificate” would be used to “confirm legal status.” She did not provide additional details and did not specify whether the Boy Scouts have ever examined gender statuses on birth certificates.

Eric Chamberlin, an executive with the Northern New Jersey Council of Boy Scouts, based in Oakland, acknowledged calling Kristie Maldonado last month but declined further comment, referring questions to Scouting’s national office and saying the issue involved "our membership standards."

The national office had no comment.

No youth may be removed from any of our programs on the basis of his or her sexual orientation. Gender identity isn’t related to sexual orientation.

The Boy Scouts decline to directly address the situation in Secaucus or say whether local or state Scouting leaders had consulted the national office about the matter.

--Delimarkos

The Boy Scouts of America is not known to have rejected any Scouts over gender identity before the Secaucus case, said Justin Wilson, the executive director of Scouts for Equality. His group advocated for Scouting to reverse its bans against gay people. He said that he does not know of any instances in which the Scouts asked for a birth certificate as as condition of membership.

Wilson said he knows of at least two transgender boys who are Cub Scouts about the same age as Joe, one in a southern state that he did not name and the other in New York. He said he did not want to be more specific because of concerns that the national organization might take steps against them. The use of birth certificates to determine gender identity, he said, would be “a new, unfair arbitrary standard” for membership.

New Jersey is one of more than 20 states that require either surgery or another medical procedure before the state will change a person's gender on a birth certificate, a stricter requirement than most surrounding states.

Four states (Idaho, Kansas, Tennessee, and Ohio) don't allow change of gender on a birth certificate under any circumstances.

Joe plays on a recreational boys basketball team with some of the children who were in his Cub Scout pack. His teachers have referred to him by male pronouns since the second grade. Kristie Maldonado said he is a “much happier child” since he was allowed to live as a boy.

How dare they judge me? I don’t have to explain it [his gender identity]. It’s the way I’m born.

--Joe

Mrs. Maldonado said she was asked whether she would "testify” that her son was a boy. She asked how the official would know her son was born a girl. He told her, she said, that he heard about it when “some mothers called.” The official did not ask for a birth certificate, she said.

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blazinAZ's picture

Every time someone blames Trump for things going on under a Democratic president, I want to scream. (If you want to blame the Republican administration of the state of New Jersey, at least that makes sense.)

The discrimination against this young boy is awful, but it's not Trump's fault. As you mention in the article, the Boy Scouts have a miserable record on LGBTQ issues.

I hope Joe finds some nice kids to play with.

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

When you consider Trump is surprisingly kinda on the right side of LGBT issues. Sure, he's not likely to lead any fights for them himself, but he seems to indicate that he's not going to touch or alter the status of the subject (law of the land he says, yet he's willing to flip abortion, which is also law of the land), and has advocated expanding the civil rights act to the LGBT community in the past.

But that's not to say that his dumbass supporters won't think it's open season on LGBT rights.

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...please point it out to me. I admit the title mentions his name, but it is pointing out that his supporters have moved to the forefront of our culture.

As the diary points out, Joe had nice kids to play with. They were members of the Cub Scout pack he joined.

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blazinAZ's picture

I assume you think he or his approach have something to do with this decision by the Boy Scouts. If he doesn't have anything to do with it (and I don't think he does), then why say it? You might as well say "in the time of Obama."

I think using Trump's name in this instance is a distraction that weakens your argument. The struggle, in my opinion, is with the Boy Scouts and the participating parents who are not standing on Joe's side.

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

CB's picture

weeks. I can assure you that 99% of people's core beliefs have not changed in the last few weeks and will not change appreciably in the coming months. Some of these changes will take a generation or more.
The only way to solve the Scouting dilemma is to completely do away with the gender-specific Boy/Girl Scout and simply call it Scouting. It would then operate much like the Venturing and Exploring programs which are open to both genders. To be frank, the US, as a whole, is not ready for this much change at this time. It's so fucking "exceptional" that it cannot look beyond its own navel.

BTW, the Baden-Powell Scouts' Association in the UK (and other nations such as Canada and Norway) have been gender neutral since the early 70's.

Scouts Canada reaffirms gay members welcome, invites Jepsen to their jamboree
In 2001, the organization's social justice and diversity policy reaffirmed its stance on the issue of discrimination, noted Kaylee Galipeau, national youth commissioner and chair of the national youth network for Scouts Canada.
Asked if Scouts Canada is concerned that people may associate the Canadian and American scouting organizations, Galipeau would only say that the recent events offered a chance to reiterate that Scouts Canada is "open and inclusive and always have been."
"We accept boys and girls, we accept LGBT members, we accept people of all faiths," Galipeau said from Valhalla Centre, Alta.

Canadians have been a generation and more in advance of Americans when it comes to LGBT issues. Truth be told, they really don't give a shit what you do in the privacy of your own bedroom (most likely because so few of them are narrow-minded religious whack-jobs).

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Centaurea's picture

his supporters have moved to the forefront of our culture.

I view what's happening a little differently. It's not just Trump supporters who are in the forefront. What I see is an axis, with reactionary Trump supporters on one side, and neoliberal establishment (Hillary supporting) folks on the other side, all of them getting emotionally riled up and going at it with each other. It's the extremes of a duality, acting out and playing off each other. Neither sees reality. Neither is capable of behaving rationally. Much melodrama, much angst and agony, full of "sound and fury, signifying nothing".

I guess I would hate for trans activists (or any other form of activism, including that addressed to climate change and income inequality) get sidetracked and hung up in that dualistic melodrama. That's a road to disempowerment. We've got to stay the course.

Edited to add: The italicized bit I quoted at the beginning is from Robyn's comment above, replying to blazinAZ.

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edg's picture

WTF? Trump had nothing to do with this awful situation. He's not president yet, Obama is. A more appropriate title would thus be "In this time of Obama" because it's far worse that it's happening under Obama.

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